El Paso City Council postpones hiring UTEP professor item

El Paso, TX (KTSM) — The City of El Paso is looking to save more than $300,000 over the next five years -- by not hiring a full time economist.

Instead -- city council will consider hiring UTEP Professor Tom Fullerton as a consultant. Council was supposed to vote on the proposal today -- but it was postponed until January 14th. The city's chief budget officer tell us -- hiring Fullerton will not only save the city money, but it will bring a fresh perspective to the city's budget. "What Doctor Fullerton would bring to this is an expertise about the economy that we don't necessarily have in house. And additionally it is the third party objective look at all of the economic conditions facing this region and then applying those forecasts or those data sets and assumptions to the city's revenue stream,” Lynley Leeper, the Chief Budget Officer for the city said.

If approved -- the city would pay Fullerton $188,000 over the next five years -- much less than the $100,000 they would pay every year for an economist. Fullerton would provide economic forecasts for the city's top 15 revenue streams.